The Bachelor Nation is already wondering who could be the next Bachelorette.

Everyone has an opinion, but at the end of the day, it's up to ABC and producers.

After the difficulties of Season 16, production hopes that 17 will be smoother sailing for the cast and the audience.

Part of their solution is to cast one of three familiar faces from the franchise: 

Kendall Long, Tia Booth, or Hannah Ann Sluss.

Reality Steve was the first to admit that he didn't know that Clare Crawley would be the Bachelorette until the rest of us did.

But this time, he can confidently report that that the candidates appear to be narrowed down to three familiar faces.

He explains his reasoning, beginning with the obvious -- it's not going to be someone from 7 or more seasons in the past.

That narrowed his pool to the six moest recent seasons -- and then narrowed things down to the finalists from those seasons.

If you go down a list of those beautiful, famous women, you'll find that almost all of them are dating, engaged, or married.

Already being in a relationship didn't stop Arie Luyendyk Jr. from signing on as the Bachelor, but it's probably safe to say that production is not looking for another Arie.

Eliminating the women in serious relationships seriously narrowed things down for Reality Steve.

He surveyed the remaining candidates, looking to their strengths, weaknesses, and relative levels of exposure.

As a result, he concluded that ABC will almost have to pick from Kendall Long, Tia Booth, or Hannah Ann Sluss.

Kendall and Tia are, of course, familiar faces to the Bachelor Nation.

The two competed for Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s creepy affections back in 2018.

Kendall came in third and Tia was just behind her in fourth place.

Hannah Ann is fresher in the minds of fans, as she competed -- and "won" -- on Peter Weber's season.

That engagement lasted only 30 days, which really set the tone for Peter's relationships in general it seems.

Hannah Ann is young, but she would actually be 25 by the time that the new season of The Bachelorette airs -- that's young, but a reasonable age at which to get married.

Tia and Kendall are both strikingly beautiful women with tons of admirers among fans.

Hannah Ann happens to be one of the most beautiful women on the planet.

But it will take more than looks and charm alone to convince producers that they're leading lady material. There will be many considerations.

Season 16 suffered from a scaled down look that resulted from filming during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Given that the worst people alive continue to shuffle around in and out of stores and restaurants without masks, COVID-19 will certainly still be a factor when Season 17 films.

However, producers are much more confident -- as they clearly were with Matt James' season -- in their pandemic protocols, so hopefully things will look less depressing.

No matter their choice, some people are bound to have an opinion -- either about the leading lady, or about who would have been better.

Meanwhile, some fans are raising their eyebrows at Reality Steve for making a few assumptions as he makes his list.

We all trust the guy when it comes to sources, but some fans would rather hear it secondhand from a network insider than just play a guessing game.